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Sarnia's attendance at Rogers Hometown Hockey was one of the highest ever

The Rogers Hometown Hockey stop in Sarnia was one of the tour's highest-attended events in its two-year history, according to event organizers. Over 10,000 people turned out for the two-day festival in late December. (Terry Bridge/Sarnia Observer/Postmedia Network)

The Rogers Hometown Hockey stop in Sarnia was one of the tour's highest attended events in its two-year history.

When the hockey festival stayed in the city Dec. 19-20, over 10,000 people participated, according to an executive summary from event organizers.

Sebastian Gatica, senior manager of communications for Sportsnet, confirmed in an e-mail to The Observer the Sarnia stop was one of the highest-attended tour destinations so far.

“We were thrilled with the turnout, and the reception the city and its residents gave us was nothing short of spectacular,” he wrote.

Vicky Praill, the sport/event marketing co-ordinator for Tourism Sarnia-Lambton, co-chaired the event's host committee. She was thrilled to hear how busy it was.

“Finding out that we had the highest attendance thus far in the Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour was amazing,” Praill said. “We're definitely proud and honoured that everyone came out and supported it.”

According to the executive summary, 4,100 people attended on Saturday and another 6,325 took part Sunday, although it did not explain how attendance was tracked at the free admission event.

It was the type of setup, Praill noted, where hundreds of people filtered in and out at a time.

“We had thousands of people over the course of the two days,” she said, adding free giveaways ran low at times which indicated a high turnout.

As for why so many people participated, Sarnia is a hockey-loving community, but Praill also pointed out the city's proximity probably helped boost attendance figures, and decent December weather didn't hurt, either.

“We have all types of fans, we have Maple Leafs fans and Detroit fans and Habs fans,” she said. “We have an OHL team, the Legionnaires, we definitely have that hockey spirit in our community. The weather also helped, it was a nice day.”

Leading up to the festival, Praill co-chaired the host committee alongside Ryan Chamney, the city's recreation co-ordinator. The duo showed Rogers' representatives some potential homes for Hometown and they eventually chose the corner of George and Front streets.

Apparently it turned out to be a good choice.

“I think it was a great decision,” she said. “They wanted to showcase our waterfront, they wanted to showcase our downtown.”

This is Hometown Hockey's second season. In addition to interactive exhibits, giveaways, NHL alumni appearances and live music, Sarnia received the national TV spotlight through an extended pre-game show prior to the live NHL broadcast with feature stories on local astronaut Chris Hadfield, and past and current Sarnia Sting players.

“Four hours showcasing our community was pretty special for us,” she said.